


It's never easy to hide with you

by kalika_999



Series: Jack and Brock's misadventures [135]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, HYDRA Husbands, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Minor Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Sexual Content, Walking In On Someone, everyone knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:41:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26671585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalika_999/pseuds/kalika_999
Summary: It's like a game.
Relationships: Jack Rollins/Brock Rumlow
Series: Jack and Brock's misadventures [135]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/547894
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	It's never easy to hide with you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [winter_angst](https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_angst/gifts).



> I'm but scratching the surface of all that I owe you but I figured you may find this fun lol 💙

Steve is just barely rested thanks to his boyfriend who takes pleasure in seeing just how long he can keep him awake before he really puts his foot down. (Sometimes a little hard with his legs hooked around Bucky’s chest or something, but that’s besides the point.) 

He lumbers through the corridor still one of the first people in for the day and that’s the reason he’ll give as he moves past a couple and doesn’t even react to them making out against the wall.

It’s their business, still early enough that no one should really catch them and he’s done it a few times himself, it’s fine. He’s actually kind of nostalgic over how oblivious they seem to their surroundings, he knows the feeling all too well. Arms desperately wrapped around each other, hands in hair, the smaller one pressed in and a leg hooked around the taller one’s, kissing like they don’t care if they need to breathe.

Steve’s out of the hall and by the elevators at the corner when he suddenly stops, complete with a record scratch going on in his head. Realization suddenly hits him like a ton of bricks and his mouth drops open slightly, eyes going wide as he turns cautiously and walks back to peek around the corner to the hallway he just passed. He sneaks a glance and yeah, he was right. There was Rumlow and Rollins making out like a pair of teenagers under one of the bright fluorescent lights.

“Steve? What are you doing?”

Steve startles to a voice behind him and snaps around looking like he was doing something terrible. “Nothing!”

He sees Sam raising his brows at him skeptically, and Steve swallows thickly trying to look as nonchalant as he possibly can. This only seems to make Sam’s brows go up into his hair yet never makes a movement to look down the hallway though he seems like he wants to make a comment saying that he clearly needs to work on his subtlety. 

“So, it’s really early. Wanna hit that diner across the way for breakfast?” Steve asks, trying not to sound breathless about it and hurried, it’s a little desperate, he can hear it so he snaps forward and physically moves Sam towards the elevators.

Sam lets himself be moved, but Steve keeps getting those ‘I’m on to you’ looks and ‘I’ll find out sooner or later Rogers’, Steve’s pretty sure. Doesn’t matter to him, he’ll take it as long as no one else catches those two because he’s not sure if they want to be caught out or not.

Whatever they are, it’s none of his business. None of their team’s either, he thinks as an afterthought with it because even though it’s Sam and he wouldn’t release information like that, he wants to make sure. Instead, on their way out he starts going off about what the best way to have his eggs today would be. 

He ignores the way Sam’s looking at him like he grew a second head.

*****

Tony keeps walking in on them.

He’s torn between excitedly yelling that he was right all along or letting everyone know so they can come see it for themselves to various levels of horror.

And it’s not like he even comes onto this floor much, he has his own office and he’s usually in the labs messing around with the tech and poking fun at Banner. Just, for some reason he has the worst luck and he’s forced by Pepper to go down and attend some pointless meeting he’s pretty sure he doesn’t need to be at when suddenly he opens the door to one of the rooms and it’s definitely not the meeting he was supposed to attend. 

He thinks.

Yeah no, he’s pretty sure he didn’t sign up to attend some coded get together where Rumlow was bent over the table and getting thoroughly fucked by Rollins with their backs to the door. 

By the way, Rollins definitely works out on the regular with a butt like that. He takes a picture for good measure before he ducks out. You know, for science and all that. Aside from not signing up for that threesome, he also didn’t want to get shot in the face. It’s just an idea he has in his head that Rollins would do something like that, balls deep and casually shooting someone in the face, they’d be really into it too. Weirdos.

After the third time of catching them doing some deep office work he refuses to go on the floor unless they’re off on missions or not in yet. The only thing he dreams about lately are those two and it’s as bad as the time he caught Rogers and Barnes  _ in his own damn office _ doing it and getting a casual  _ we didn’t think you used it.  _

He sends Pepper a memo that the cleaners need to disinfect everything as if they’re avoiding a plague just for good measure.

*****

Bucky made a game out of keeping track of their relationship. In the beginning it was easy to tell what was going on because Brock and Jack had no tact for sneaking around. They were terrible at it and he was sure he started watching them within the first few days of them starting their thing together. 

As the years passed it became a little more complicated to keep it all in order. They would hook up after beers at the bar once they were back from a mission or sometimes they’d take breaks and only keep their relationship on a professional level. Once in a while one of them or both would be dating someone else then rebound back into each other's arms. It got complex real quick and actually started to become a full time job.

Lately Bucky’s just happy when he knows they’re together and figured out a long time ago that he’s been rooting for them quietly. He’s never tried to openly push them together or say something in that manner because Brock was always paranoid and secretive about it for some goddamn reason, yet on the same point was as low key as a bull rampaging through a china shop. 

He still remembers when Jack was stooped over a table and signing a report when Brock walked by sipping a coffee and his hand went flying across both of Jack’ ass cheeks with a gentle smack before he suddenly stopped and turned to the others in a room. Bucky winced visibly when Brock stammered ‘good game’ since Jack had just come back from a successful mission with a team of two others and finished it with ease. No one said anything, there was only him, and some agents that would never dare to repeat what they saw and Jack wasn’t really batting an eye to anything so within a couple of minutes everything went back to normal.

Jack goes with whatever Brock wants to do, it’s like a thing they have between each other. If Brock wants a quickie in the backseat of his car and nothing else he’s good for it, if he wants Jack to fuck him stupid in a burned out shelter in the middle of assfuck nowhere in the Middle East then hold hands in Europe, he’ll do it. Once Bucky saw fresh shallow knife wounds across Brock’s neck and he hadn’t been sent off anywhere; when he raised his brow about it, Brock only shook his head and said not to ask, trailing gloved fingers over them and licking his lips watching Jack cleaning his weapons at the far end and paying no mind to their presence. Bucky’s made it a point not to ask much about shit like that anymore.

Bottom line is Jack tends to naturally follow his lead which these days has eased the hyper awareness Brock had before and ends up with them living together at Brock’s place a lot more as well as being lazy about arriving in different cars. He’s pretty sure Jack’s place hasn’t been used in a couple months judging by the newspapers piling at his door when Bucky dropped by once unannounced. 

Bucky’s just glad they’re good right now, he’s happy for them and he wants to take them out for celebratory drinks or something and let them know everyone else is glad for them too despite some office humour and that they don’t have to separate their private lives from the team because it seems useless these days. But because of Brock and his paranoia about God knows what and wanting to keep his head in the game with missions, he can’t. Especially since the last time he made an off the cuff comment about them being together they suddenly broke up for some indeterminate amount of time and Jack would give Brock random wistful looks that didn’t linger and Brock’s level of training turned into a nightmare. Newly recruited agents coming out of gyms looked worse than they did when they were on the field. He broke so many of them Steve had to put him on desk duty until he knew Jack was back in the picture. 

Bucky’s not making the same mistake again, especially when Steve takes his ranting home and he has to hear it there too. It’s not very funny when he’s trying to seduce his boyfriend but he’s bitching about wanting Brock to get fucked so his job isn’t such a hassle to deal with.

Okay well, that was a _ little _ funny.

*****

Once a week in the evening, Maddalena spends an hour talking about nothing and everything with her grandson, Brock. It’s nice just to hear his voice now while he’s living in DC and she’s still out in New York. With their latest call, he very deliberately does not mention Jack.

In return she holds back her questions on how Jack is doing or how they’re doing in general. By now, she knows to leave it be, to let her grandson handle his own life even though she hopes all is well. He will ask if he really does need advice and she’ll give it then but she still worries about how those two handle their issues.

Not even a single mention of Jack means they’re on another break and Brock trusts her enough not to bring him up in a kind of silent understanding between them. Sometimes it’s because Jack is on a mission without Brock and he worries for him, but he would have mentioned it in some cryptic way her grandson speaks when he cares but doesn’t want to say that outright. Right now he just wants her to listen and they can talk about anything besides him when he misses Jack’s presence at his place.

From her calculations, they had been together for a long while before this call. Past contacts mentioned him with gentle jabs at Jack’s inability to make risotto properly and that he complains too much about picking up after Brock’s laundry misses the basket. She rolls her eyes when Jack is usually within earshot and retorts back that he does in the background and that causes Brock to tell him to leave his apartment. She’s witness, albeit only via phone, to numerous moments where this happens and the call goes quiet before Brock laughs gently like he’s trying to keep it in and she knows he only does that when he’s completely charmed by something or a certain someone. 

She was hoping this was going to be it, smiling tightly as Brock rambles on about how horrible the weather is right now. She only wants to pull him in and tell him it’s fine but he’s proud and stubborn and she lets him deal how he prefers to. She wishes they would settle down together already, she’s already too old for all the games.

Granted, never once has Brock actually said he was dating Jack but when she knew how to cheat just by the pitch of his voice changing when it came to Jack and him only, it wasn’t her fault. A grandmother always knows, plus they were too obvious.

“Are you seeing someone? Sofie said she has a friend.” She asks lightly when there’s a lull of silence between them and she stares out the window from her chair at the kitchen table. Brock doesn’t say anything for a long moment.

“No.” He hesitates for a long second, she pictures his face making that tight frown he does sometimes when he’s pressed for words. “It’s complicated.”

Her fingers drum along the handle of her tea cup and she isn’t going to sigh over the phone, she refuses to. “It doesn’t need to be, cucciolo. I think you make it more complicated than it really is. You do that sometimes, you know.” She smiles a little. “You like being stubborn.”

“What makes ya think it’s m’fault?” Brock asks, voice pitched a bit and she has to stifle a laugh at the sulking tone of his voice. It’s all the evidence she really needs.

“It wasn’t?”

Brock’s childish silence gives her the answer and really, he can’t keep doing this. It’s been _years_. “You can’t keep doing this forever, tesoro. Nothing will work out if you keep going like this, the both of you.”

Brock sucks in a startled breath before he heavily exhales. “I ain’t good at this stuff. I jus..I dunno..”

He doesn’t finish his sentence and as overbearing as she can be sometimes, she doesn’t say anything else. Her grandson is set in his ways and for all his strength and fortitude, he spooks so very easily with serious things like Jack, even if he doesn’t let her know that it’s him who they’re talking about and she doesn’t let on. She only lets him work it out on his own and lightly nudges.

“All I am saying is that if you really love someone, communicate things. There’s no time for all this space.”

“It ain’t like that- ”

“Brock,” she says softly, interrupting him because it suddenly occurred to her _why_ he was acting so on and off. “Do you love him?” 

He doesn’t answer and eventually the subject changes but as they say their goodbyes, she thinks maybe she’s given him the tiny little nudge he needs. She’s always thought Jack was good for him, no matter what Brock says about him when he’s angry.

*****

Bruce receives a text from Jack, and while that isn’t entirely unusual since they’re both part of SHIELD and he has random questions relating to anything science related, he is still a little surprised. Generally their messages are far and few on the forefront and seemed to only be a thing that happened when he really had to. Their conversations are concise and sometimes Bruce ends up going into terminology and jargon Jack may have to ask some explanations for. He’s very comfortable about explosives and he’s never really bothered by the random inquiries he sends him about such matters.

He reads the text expecting something in relation to physics or biochemistry only to feel his surprise grow.

**_JR:_ ** _ Tired of lying to my team no matter how trivial or minor it is. Wanna come out. Any advice?  _

Jack is right about it being trivial, no one with half a mind would oppose anything Rollins would have to say about him being homosexual, but he understands the wariness all the same. He never had the choice when Tony let it out by accident when he was making a personal call and forgot he had an on-air microphone feeding to a large crowd for some event. He never said his name but within five minutes everyone figured out who he was referring to when he was cooing  _ I love you sweetheart _ while Pepper was trying to get to him before the damage (so to speak) was done.

The thing that Jack doesn’t know, and in extension Brock Rumlow, was that everyone pretty much knew about their relationship the first moment they met. It was kind of common knowledge that they bonded eerily well and that if nothing became of their closeness it would have been more of a surprise than them getting together. Bruce had heard about it vaguely from Tony who liked gossip (before he was running into their “boardroom meetings”) and he saw it first hand the first time Bruce went to meet their team. 

Jack had arrived early and they kept up a small conversation before Brock walked in. As stoic and unreadable as Rollins’ expressions tended to be normally, he let himself fall open like a book when that man was in the room. Everything seemed to ease up and as comfortable as Bruce was when it was just the pair of them in the room, he felt it become even  _ lighter _ when Brock arrived. He wasn’t sure about the other man at the time but he was very sure about Rollins’ feelings for him.

He takes a deep breath, giving the phone a gentle nod.

**_BB:_ ** _ Not to sound cliche, but I think this is one moment you should follow your heart..for everything related to this. _

There’s a delay in response and though Bruce is working on something important, he hopes he hasn’t offended the man. After a few minutes he receives one lone thumbs up emoji in return. 

It’s enough.

*****

Okay, so Brock may not want to get into everyone’s business and hopes people aren’t getting into his but he knows his nonna (she isn’t as slick as she used to be) isn’t the only one that has an idea about all this. 

He doesn’t want to mess things up between Jack and him, every time he thinks it might stick, something happens. Sometimes Jack needs space, or Brock throws his shit out the window because Rollins doesn’t mention working late because he gets backed up with reports and paperwork and he fucking worries when he doesn’t tell him and that pisses him off alright? He shouldn’t have to think about shit like that, he has to babysit a buncha kids at work that can’t figure out their dick from their asshole half the time, he doesn’t need to worry about his stupid  _ whatever he is _ as well.

So maybe Brock ends up missing him  _ a lot _ and instead of telling Jack he wants to try again like a normal fucking adult, he starts to act a bit shitty towards him when they’re around the office. He does it to piss Rollins off, to push his buttons and rile him up. He does it because he knows Jack only takes so much of it until he pushes him against a wall and threatens him, pressed close and breathing heatedly. He does it so they end up screwing five minutes later and they’re back together again. It’s a not-so-vague system with them. It’s how they work and it’s how currently Jack slowly eases back into practically living in his apartment again and he doesn’t wanna jinx anything up. They’re good right now and he wants to keep it that way. He doesn’t want anything to change anymore if he’s being really honest with himself.

It’s why he ignores the reactions, the looks, anything people catch while he and Rollins pretend like they don’t notice they were caught. He doesn’t want anyone freaking either of them out or cheering them on like they’re in a race of some sort. He knows everyone wants only the best for them (he assumes) but it’s just how he feels about it and nothing’s going to change his mind. It’s no ones fucking business.

Everything is fine and dandy until one day Jack walks through the door and Brock catches a line of determination across his brow before he leans down and gives him a kiss from the side of the couch instead of sitting down first. He likes that about Rollins, being all  _ domestic _ the second he comes in but he can’t shrug off that something is off.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about us the past few days and I’ve figured out what my goals are for my future.”

Brock blinks at him, a little annoyed at not getting a chance to deepen the kiss and also mildly confused. “‘Kay?”

Jack presses a hand against the top of the couch, face set in a way that makes Brock suddenly very alert. “I wanna get married, it’s about time I should. I know it is. I want kids Brock, a family. I wanna do all that domestic life shit and get into arguments over how to put together IKEA furniture. Mundane day to day life crap like a normal person.”

Letting it sink in a little, Brock stares at him while Jack waits for him to say something. He can’t read him worth a damn all of a sudden and he feels his stomach sink. “What? Thought you already do that stuff when yer ‘ere anyway.” He raises a brows, defenses kicking in. “Are ya tellin’ me yer leavin’ fer good now?”

It wasn’t supposed to go like this, Brock was ready to talk it out and  _ say something _ worth a damn. Jack wasn’t supposed to spring random shit like this on him when things were going great between them. What did he miss?

But Jack rolls his eyes at him. “No I’m not leaving you, Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t just say shit like that and walk away, give me some credit. I just, I can’t do breaks no more Brock. No more one of us saying we need space so we end up not talking to each other for two weeks. No more ‘get out of my apartment because you’re an asshole’, no more drunk texts while fucking someone else, no more arguing about how your nonna loves me more than you- ”

“ -She don’t though!” Brock cut in. 

Jack fixed him with a look, his voice firm. “No more of anything like that.” 

He moved around so he was standing before him and reached over to take the hands resting on his lap, giving them a little squeeze before Jack exhales nervously and Brock can only stare at him a little wild eyed.

It’s then that he moves down in a swift drop, onto one knee and looks at him, earnest and suddenly much too vulnerable. “No more Brock. We can’t.”

Brock’s frozen on the couch, eyes wide and mouth open like he wants to speak but doesn’t know where to fucking start and Jack draws in a deep breath before he says, strength in his voice returning. “Brock Anthony Rumlow, will you marry me?” 

They stare at each other for the longest seconds of their lives; longer than any mission where they weren’t paired together, longer than any moment he’s held his breath while Jack was in charge of disabling a set of explosives, longer than any moment the other stopped breathing as they waited for medical to report back. It’s too long before Brock can finally manage to actually speak again.

“Holy shit are ya seriously proposin’ to me?”

It spills out of his mouth before he can stop himself, too surprised to hold back and he didn’t even see any of it coming. He blinks a second at Jack staring up at him, green eyes so light and gentle, it reminds him of the forest when the sun streams in and brushes through all the foliage.

“Jack, are ya proposin’, fer real?” He’s asking again because _what the fuck_? It’s sinking in slowly and Jack waits for him, like he always does. Brock tilts his head a little in sudden question. “Wait, where’s my ring? Can’t be a proposal without a fuckin’ ring, Rollins. How stupid are ya?”

Jack lets out a startled breath at that, choking a laugh. It’s strained but he’s  _ happy _ and Brock can see now how nervous he’d been, how tightly wound up he had made himself.

“Just gotta say yes sweetheart and I’ll buy you any damn ring you please. I’ll buy you the whole damn store if you want. I promise.”

“Yer fuckin’ crazy.” Brock spits out but he grins, wide and all teeth, pulling Jack’s face in. “‘Course I’ll marry ya, dumbass givin’ me a fuckin’ heart attack walkin’ in like that.”

He’s held tight and they kiss like Jack’s working to suffocate him. Brock doesn’t care, hands in his hair and gripping it tight. He already hears those small growls Jack does, a hand moving down and grabbing at his ass. Brock manages to pull away just enough to utter  _ bedroom _ before Jack’s on him again, full weight and despite them both being in awkward positions half on the couch and off it, the second he grinds in Brock is too desperate to move that way.

Of course that’s when he’s lifted up easily enough by his thighs and as always legs lock automatically around Jack’s middle while he’s carried into the room without breaking their sloppy kisses. Something breaks in the hallway when Jack bumps against the wall but neither of them seem to care much and Brock only orders Jack to move faster while he compartmentalizes cleaning up the mess for later in his head.

For now, there’s only him and Jack, Brock’s face rubbing into rough stubble as Jack’s teeth pinch skin while hands hurry to strip each piece of clothing away from heated skin.

It’s only them tonight and hopefully some level of peace before they’re back at work with everyone walking on eggshells as if they hadn’t noticed the team caught them in various acts while both Jack and Brock play the part well of not being noticed.

They always did, that was the fun part.


End file.
